Local

Lancaster social media started popping just after 9 a.m. Friday.
A dead-serious crowd of officials were gathered in a field beside the coroner’s office. Coroner Karla Deese walked around a motionless male figure on the ground, taking notes.
Soon investigators were loading a body bag onto a stretcher for transport. TV cameras strained to get the best angle. Cars were pulling off the road to see who had died.

Indian Land High School driver’s education teacher Rick Furr spent last summer exploring his faith in Israel.
“It always feels like I’m going back home,” said Furr, who made his fourth trip there in 2017.

The big parade isn’t the only thing happening this holiday weekend.
The 17th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Scholarship Breakfast will be held 8 a.m. Monday at the Covenant Baptist Church Family Life Center, 165 Craig Manor Road in Lancaster.
This year’s theme is “overcoming the scars.” Lancaster native Rick Wade, a former U.S. Commerce Department official and a senior adviser in both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, is the keynote speaker.

The city of Lancaster is hosting its largest-ever Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade this Saturday.
“It’s the largest and longest parade we’ve thrown from the past five years,” said Joe Timmons, the city’s events and promotions manager.
There will be about 90 floats in the parade, with 76 companies, organizations and charities sponsoring entries.
“It’s a sign that we’re growing, and that’s great,” Timmons said.

Springs Memorial Hospital on Thursday initiated flu-season limitations on its visitation policy because of the high number of flu cases in the area.
Since the beginning of October, there have been 12 flu admissions to the hospital. On average these patients stayed about two or three days.
“Usually patients go home to recover after seeing their doctor, but these cases are so bad that these patients required admission to the hospital,” said Ashley Shannon, director of community relations for Springs Memorial.

A Kershaw man died Wednesday after he was severely injured in a brush fire near his home on Victory Road the day before.
The man has been identified by the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office as 79-year-old Billy Gene Wallace.
According to Lancaster County Fire Marshal Russell Rogers, Flat Creek and Kershaw volunteer fire departments, along with full-time employees of Lancaster County Fire Rescue and EMS, responded to the dispatch call at noon, and a landing zone was set up at Flat Creek VFD for the victim to be flown out.

No charges will be filed in the death of Jerrell White following a six-month investigation, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division announced Thursday.
White, a 22-year-old college student, disappeared early July 5 after an Independence Day party at a Pleasant Road house in the Primus community. His body was recovered four days later from a nearby pond.
The case “has been closed and no charges will be brought,” SLED spokesman Thom Berry said Thursday.

KERSHAW – Reversing itself on turning Stevens Park over to the county, the town of Kershaw will hang on to its recreation centerpiece, even though it’s a big money-losing proposition.
“To cut through the chase, this council wants to keep the facility,” Mayor Mark Dorman said at Tuesday’s meeting of the county’s Joint Recreation Commission. The commission moved its January meeting to Kershaw so it could tour the facility.

A Lancaster County Detention Center guard has been charged Monday with supplying marijuana, cell phones and other contraband to prisoners.
Christopher Paul Sweet, 33, of Fort Mill, was arrested Monday on warrants that accused him of furnishing contraband to a county prisoner and misconduct in office, sheriff’s spokesman Doug Barfield said Wednesday.
Sweet’s arrest was followed Tuesday morning by dismissal of Debbie Horne, the detention center’s administrator for 24 years. It was not clear if the actions were related.

Fire destroyed a house on West Shiloh Unity Road north of Lancaster early Tuesday morning.
According to Lancaster County Fire Marshal Russell Rogers, the fire started in a rear bedroom and spread through the rest of the house.
“It was pretty far gone before the fire department got there,” he said.
The dispatch call went out shortly after 5 a.m. and Shiloh Zion, Charlotte Road/Van Wyck and Riverside volunteer fire departments responded.